News

13 Vote Everywhere Schools Designated “Voter Friendly Campuses”

March 22, 2017

March 22, 2016— The Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF) announced today that 13 of the 43 campuses in its Vote Everywhere Program (VE) have received the “Voter Friendly Campus” designation. The “Voter Friendly Campus” designation program, sponsored by NASPA–Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, and Campus Vote Project (CVP), a project of Fair Elections Legal Network, is designed to bolster efforts that help students overcome barriers to participating in the political process and develop a culture of civic engagement on campus. In total, 83 colleges and universities received the designation for 2017-2018.

“Voting is more important than ever in today’s volatile political atmosphere, especially by young people. Seeing so many higher education institutions step up and encourage voting among their students is great,” says Maxim Thorne, Managing Director of AGF.

Vote Everywhere, a program of The Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF), is a national, non-partisan, civic engagement movement of student leaders and university partners. The program provides extensive training, resources, as well as a peer network to support student leaders while they work to register and turnout voters, bring down voting barriers, and tackle important social justice issues on their college campuses. Vote Everywhere is unique because it is a continuous presence on partner campuses during both election and also non-election years.

The following Vote Everywhere school partners earned the Voter Friendly Campus designation for 2017-2018:

Case Western University

East Carolina University

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Miami Dade College

Miami University

SUNY Binghamton

SUNY Geneseo

Towson University

University of Louisville

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

University of Pennsylvania

University of Utah

Western Carolina University

In order to become a “Voter Friendly Campus,” schools are required to engage their student body and promote voter registration and voting as part of their institutional mission. Each campus was evaluated on their ability to write a campus voter engagement plan for Fall 2016, facilitate voter engagement efforts, and analyze their success. With support from the Vote Everywhere program and staff, the 13 Vote Everywhere schools were able to meet all the requirements necessary to achieve the designation.

“By uniting campus administrators, student leaders, staff, and partner organizations like CVP, The Andrew Goodman Foundation is working to shape the next generation of active, engaged citizens,” says AGF’s Executive Director Sylvia Golbin Goodman. “We are thrilled that 13 of our school partners were recognized for their commitment to youth civic engagement and look forward to helping more schools receive the designation in the future.

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Established to continue the legacy of Andrew Goodman, a civil rights worker murdered during Freedom Summer 1964, The Andrew Goodman Foundation partners with America’s colleges and universities through its Vote Everywhere program which provides student leaders with a platform to register and mobilize voters, organize campuses, and collaborate with their peers. Launched as a pilot program in 2012, Vote Everywhere now operates in 20 states and is directed by over 100 student Ambassadors. Its current network of 43 campuses is home to a student population of nearly a million.